This to me is the sticking point. The biggest benefit to society for patents is: you get the formula (but can only use it once the patent expires). I would imag

This to me is the sticking point. The biggest benefit to society for patents is: you get the formula (but can only use it once the patent expires). I would imagine that no one short of lawyers has ever bothered to read expired software patents. They are literal drivel and until they are useful to have disclosed, they should probably not be patentable, in my opinion.